Olsen fears complacency after win

13 June 2012 11:47

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Denmark coach Morten Olsen has urged his squad to guard against complacency after their surprise opening Group B win over Holland.

The Danes face Portugal on Wednesday night knowing a second victory could put them into the quarter-finals with a match to spare. A win over Holland had seen Olsen's side likened to the team which came from nowhere to win the 1992 European Championships as late replacements for Yugoslavia.

The Denmark coach insists times have changed significantly since then but admits beating the Dutch did wonders for morale, and he said: "It has given us a real lift and built confidence but we cannot fall asleep now."

He added: "Portugal were unlucky against Germany (losing 1-0), while we needed good fortune ourselves - we needed it to be our day.

"You must dream but you have to appreciate how different football is today. If we get through the group stage it would be like winning the tournament back in 1992.

"I don't want to compare with 1992. Sometimes you are successful, sometimes you are not.

"We are not favourites against Portugal, we're not favourites against the top teams, but we want to find our own game.

"A coach's job is to find players that complement one another. We have a real team that works hard for each other. Other teams have stars, we have a team. It's true that we are closer to making it out of the group than we were before the first game, but we are not there yet."

Denmark have beaten their opponents three times and drawn once in their last five meetings and that record gives them added belief according to first game match-winner Michael Krohn-Delhi.

"It gives us a sense that victory is possible. We have also lost to them, of course, and they are a good team, but it gives us confidence that we are capable of getting a good result," he told uefa.com. "We've had a good start to the finals and needn't fear anyone. While we need to respect every opponent, we have shown that they also need to respect us."